Definitely Not Ordinary
by fringeperson
Summary: Her adventures in Sengoku are over, but now Kagome is just about tearing her hair out with the way things are in Tokyo. Her solution? Go and live with her aunt, April O'Neil, in New York. It's a change of pace that she needs as much as wants, but soon enough she's making new friends and finding adventure again. Don't own, complete.
1. Chapter 1

You wouldn't think that a girl with a name like Higurashi would be related to someone with a name like O'Neil, but then, Higurashi was her mother's name, not her father's. Living in Japan, having her mother's name was safer for a girl whose only indication of any foreign blood was her blue eyes. In America, on the other hand, it was easier to be an O'Neil. If for no other reason than it was easier for everybody to say right.

Her aunt was the only family still alive on her father's side of the family. Her dad had died not long after Souta was born. An earthquake and ripped open the street he was walking down, and some part of a building had fallen onto him. He'd died instantly, so at least he hadn't suffered. It had just been the family that had suffered, feeling the absence of him.

After she'd finally finished middle school, and her horrific quest that took up so much of her time and caused her to be held back a year, Kagome had decided she needed – not just wanted, but _needed_ – a change. Living with her aunt in New York might not have been a totally safe choice, but the shrine had a few too many memories, and Tokyo was _too_ safe after all her adventures in the Sengoku era. She'd managed to get through most of high school before the dullness drove her to this point, but she still had a year to go.

One thing for sure though, she wouldn't have to worry about demons or spirits hunting her down for the Shikon no Tama in New York. Places that were as industrialised, covered in concrete and metal, and as heavily populated by 'stinking humans' as New York was... weren't too popular with demons and spirits. Demons had too sensitive ears and noses to care much for big cities, and spirits – particularly American ones (Kagome had done her research) – were much more inclined towards places that had more nature.

New York might have had Central Park, and Central Park might have been fairly expansive, but the excessive amounts of city more than negated that. There might be a few of the smaller nature sprites – the kind that didn't need more than a flower or two to flourish – among the garden beds of Central Park, but they wouldn't bother Kagome any.

Heck, Tokyo was too industrial for most demons, and it had a lot more areas dedicated to temples and the like spread throughout. The only spirits hanging around were ones that were attached specifically to some specific bit of plant life or shrine, and not every shrine had a spirit hanging about either. The Higurashi Shrine, where Kagome had grown up, had plenty of power hanging around because of the Goshinboku and the Bone Eater's Well, but still no patron spirits.

"I don't get why you're moving to New York," Yuka complained with a pout as she, Eri, and Ayumi all (a little reluctantly) helped Kagome pack for her inter-continental move.

"Yeah," Eri agreed. "People get advised by their doctors to go out to the country to regain their strength when they're recovering from illness, right? Why are you going to New York? And don't say it's because they've got better doctors. You _know_ that's not true!"

Kagome sighed. After the first time she'd come back from the Sengoku and been asked about her rheumatoid arthritis, Kagome had gone to speak to the school's secretary. She was the one her friends had gotten _that_ bit of information from.

Kagome had explained to the woman that a) her grandfather was senile, and b) she had cancer. If her grandfather told her any other illness, then that was whatever was bothering _him_ at the moment, while Kagome was just being a guinea-pig for experimental procedures to find a cure for cancer – and she would also always let the school know in advance before she left for treatment.

That hadn't stopped the crazy rumours about Kagome suffering from all of her grandfather's many ailments, but it had cleared up matters with the administration.

"I'm going to New York because I want to," Kagome informed them. "I've wanted to go to New York since I was little, but Mama didn't want me to go until she was satisfied that I'd be able to take care of myself. My aunt isn't necessarily always going to be reliable, since she's a journalist and has to work long hours."

"Uh, Kagome?" Ayumi asked. "What's this bag?"

Kagome looked over and smirked. "Clothes that I'm _not_ taking," she answered happily. "You girls can all help yourselves to them if you like."

Eri and Yuka dived on the fat garbage bag.

"Kagome!" Yuka exclaimed, shocked at what she found. "You're not taking _any_ of your skirts?"

"Or your dresses?" Eri added, eyes large in her face.

Kagome laughed. She had extensive experience of running in skirts, and she didn't doubt that moving to New York would see her doing more running. Her aunt had sent her news of the unfortunately (but mercifully slowly) climbing crime-rate of New York, and Kagome didn't feel like flashing the perverts there her panties.

She didn't mind it in the Sengoku, mostly because there was hardly anybody around to see. When there were people around, the fact that she was showing off so much leg distracted people fairly well that she most times didn't have to run in populated areas. Low risk.

"I'm taking a few," she answered with a shake of her head. "But the kind that I wear over leggings. Most of those skirts would just cling with static if I wore them with anything underneath."

"Well, then I'm claiming _this_ one!" Eri declared happily as she lifted up her prize – a red dress that she and Yuka had forced Kagome to buy the previous year. At the time, Kagome was the only one of them that had the body to pull it off, but Eri had (much to her delight) developed somewhat since then.

~oOo~

"Kagome!"

The girl smiled as she saw the person waving for her as she left customs. "Aunt April!" she answered happily.

"Good flight?" April asked with a smile as she hugged her niece.

"_Long_ flight," Kagome corrected. "But I didn't have any unpleasant neighbours, so I was fine."

"Glad to hear it. Now let's get out of here," April suggested. "We'll get some pizza on the way home. You _do_ like pizza, right?" April checked.

Kagome shrugged. "I'm more fresh produce and healthy home cooking in general, but I can murder a burger pretty fast. My friends and I never went for pizza though," she admitted.

April laughed. "Well, we'll get you a good New York Slice, and if you're still hungry, we'll go from there. Sound good?" she offered.

Kagome nodded.

"And once we've eaten, we'll get you settled in. And, uh, could you keep it quiet on the 'aunt'?" April requested with a slightly weak smile. "Just 'cause I'm a grown-up to your teenager, I don't want to be reminded that I'm getting older."

"Just 'April', then?" Kagome guessed.

April nodded. "Yeah," she agreed gratefully. "Alright, to Roy's Pizzeria!"

Kagome laughed at her aunt's enthusiasm, but happily went along with it. She was singing the praises of Roy's Pizzeria along with her aunt soon enough. They made a _great_ slice.

~oOo~

Kagome smiled when she saw the building. Her aunt owned the place, had inherited it actually, and lived in the apartment above the antique shop that she kept, but practically never had open, because she was always busy with her job as a reporter.

"And my sentimentality is costing me money," April admitted with a wry smirk as she let Kagome into the building through the shop.

"I could run it," Kagome offered as she looked around, fascinated by all the antiques that were sitting around and – sadly – collecting dust. "I know my way around old things," she added with a smile.

April chuckled. "I'll bet you do, growing up in a shrine with all the old junk your grandfather has hanging around," she quipped. Then shrugged. "Sure," she agreed. "But only _after_ school hours," she cautioned. "And if your grades start to slip, then you close up the shop until you're on top of everything again, alright? You make it work, and the business is yours to do what you like with when you've got your high school diploma."

Kagome beamed. "Deal!" she affirmed happily. "I won't be opening the shop up straight away though. You've really let everything get filthy in here. I've only seen this much mess in Souta's bedroom, and even that only once. Mama _really_ got on his case about it," she confided with a giggle.

Not to mention, she'd have to write to her mother to send over all the treasures she'd brought back form her adventures. She finally had a place to sell them for herself. Every time she'd come back through the well, she'd brought back something that her family could sell to make up the money they spent on supplies for her and her friends.

She'd failed to take into account how much some things would sell for, so just a few items had paid for a year's worth of supplies. She had plenty still left over, and had learned a thing or fifty about the antiques business as a consequence.

Not that she would tell her aunt that.

April laughed in appreciation for the comparison between her shop and her nephew's bedroom, bringing Kagome back to the present and out of her thoughts. "Well, you take as much time as you need to get the place cleaned up to your satisfaction, and then just open it whenever. Like I said, as long as your grades don't suffer, the business is all yours. I hope you're good at keeping business records," she added.

Kagome nodded. "I helped out around the shrine during festivals, and during the last tax season. I'll get everything sorted out," she promised.

April nodded, satisfied. "Well, next stop, the apartment," she declared. "And we'll complete the tour on the roof before we go and get some food. You'll like the roof. It's somewhere fairly private where you can do your thing. Your ma said you were into all that fighting stuff?"

Kagome nodded in confirmation. "I'm pretty good at archery with a traditional Japanese bow, but a bit before I finished middle-school I started learning other things too."

"Well, as long as you don't break any of the neighbour's windows, it won't be a problem if you decide to take over the roof for your training space," April promised. "Just... don't leave stuff up there that isn't bolted down. Don't want to risk any of your stuff getting stolen."

Kagome nodded in understanding. "Thanks April."

~oOo~

Kagome's first order of business, after going through the inventory and records, had been a serious clean-up. Antique shops, in her experience, were always over-stocked and bore more of a resemblance to a junk shop than a place that had valuable antiques for sale. The place that April had inherited from her father, Kagome's grandfather O'Neil, had been no exception.

The second order of business was to find some auction houses, so that there was some actual floor-space in the shop, rather than clutter everywhere.

She'd even sold the old sign that said _2__nd__ Time Around_. It just wasn't classy, and antiques should be classy.

Cymbals: sold. Ancient wind-up toys: snapped up by some people who had grown up to be collectors. Very old jewellery: extremely popular with very old women. The old clothes had been taken by a fashion museum and a few private parties, and the stuffed shark had gone for a _lot_ more than she had expected. The lamps had stuck around for a while, but they had gone as well.

The books had hung around longest, apart from some pieces of furniture. She'd just kept a few of the nicer pieces for display purposes.

Kagome was making contacts in the business world came from selling to them, rather than buying from them. She was developing the contacts though, and that was the important thing. When she decided she would be ready to shift her focus, she'd know who to call.

Right now, Kagome was having new glass installed in the windows of the shop. Thicker glass that would be harder to break, and tinted, because antiques shouldn't be exposed to too much direct light. Okay, so very little of New York got direct light, but it was still possible for the valuable antiques to fade if she displayed them in the windows for too long.

"You've really made this place your own," April commented as she watched Kagome set up the window displays in the wake of the parting glaziers. "It's hard to believe it's the same place. It looks more like a museum gallery than an antique shop now."

Kagome smiled. "I know how to deal with the junk my grandfather loved to keep," she said, amused. "Both of them," she added. After all, she'd grown up living with one grandfather who loved his antiques, however weird or not-at-all-collectable they were. It just happened to be something that had happened on both sides of the family.

"Hey now, it wasn't all junk," April protested with a fond smile.

Kagome nodded. "That's certainly true," she agreed, and lightly ran one hand over the gilded frame of a truly beautiful painting. Kagome had no idea how her O'Neil grandfather had come to possess it, but it was something that would draw a lot of attention from the art world as soon as she made it known that she had it, and for sale at that.

~oOo~

Kagome had been in New York for almost year. She'd gotten the shop in order, kept up a B-average in her classes, and had slowly but completely taken over all the cooking in the apartment, as well as about half the cleaning. The antique shop had been open all day during the week in her vacation times, and April was generous enough to not charge Kagome any kind of rent or ask for any of the money she made from the shop. As long as it wasn't losing her money any more, that was fine with her.

In that year, Kagome had also met April's boss, a man named Charles, and his son Danny, who was a year younger than Kagome herself was.

Most importantly to Kagome though was the progress she had made in her personal training on the roof. Having been forced to leave the traditional Japanese bow behind when she moved to America but not wanting to give up the discipline, she'd bought herself a modern compound bow, and she'd quickly gotten to the stage where she was hitting the bull's-eye of the target she'd set up every time again – the change in archery style had thrown her aim a bit at first.

Her other martial disciplines were harder to measure, since she didn't have a real opponent beyond the spinning wooden dummy she'd managed to cobble together. The movements flowed easier than they had though, and it took longer for her to work up a sweat than it used to. As much as she loved the bow, it just wasn't something that was practical to carry around these days, especially in New York. Carrying around a giant boomerang like Sango wasn't something Kagome really wanted to do either, and she was too young – in this era – to be walking around with a staff. It was too much like a walking stick.

As useful as she knew such items to be in a pinch, she really didn't need the extra stigma.

One thing that she had not been able to do in the near-year she'd been in New York was make any friends. The girls had sneered at her and her 'good girl' behaviour, and the boys had gone for the 'want a good time?' approach.

It hadn't taken Kagome two days before she had decided that she didn't need to – and wouldn't – put up with that, and after dealing with a couple of the worst offenders, her peers had come crawling on their bellies to her (metaphorically). As forgiving as Kagome was though, she had also grown up and learned her lesson. She didn't want, or need, friends like these kids.

Yes, Inuyasha had tried to kill her, but it hadn't been personal. The placement of the subjugation beads around his neck had given Kagome the security to have the opportunity to see that. Yes, Shippo had stolen from her and caused her to be placed in mortal peril, but he was a desperate child and he'd come back for her even when he couldn't really do anything himself. Yes, Miroku was a pervert and had (also) stolen from her and attempted harm against her. Once the situation was explained to him though, he had apologised profusely. Yes, Sango had tried to kill Inuyasha, but that was because she'd been lied to. Once that was straightened out, Sango had become like an older sister to Kagome. Even Sesshoumaru had become an ally in the end, but then, he'd only ever tried to kill her when Kagome herself had done something stupid to draw his ire.

These people didn't have any sort of mitigating circumstances though. They'd been petty and mean to her because they could be, and they'd come hoping for her favour and forgiveness because they saw that she wasn't one to let herself be pushed around.

Well, she wasn't one to be manipulated any more _either_.

Besides, she only had to put up with these brats who were her supposed peers for a year before she graduated.

Actually, Kagome's list of friends had been decidedly reduced by her decision to move. Eri, Yuka and Ayumi had slowly become more distant as time passed and it became clear that Kagome wouldn't be coming back to Tokyo any time soon. With her move across the ocean, Hojo was now no longer any kind of factor, and even if he had been, Kagome had no desire to keep up contact with him.

And for all that she'd been introduced to the son of her aunt's boss, and both of them came over to April's building now and then, Kagome hadn't really made friends with the slightly younger boy either. A lot of young Americans, Kagome had figured out pretty fast, didn't have any proper sense of family. For some of them that wasn't their fault, but Danny's father cared about him, and Kagome couldn't be friends with someone who didn't even respect their father.

Inuyasha may have said he didn't give a damn about his old man a few times, but Kagome knew he was lying each and every time. Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, had always respected his father, respected the power of the Great and Terrible Inu no Taisho, even when he was dead and had broken Sesshoumaru's trust.

No, Kagome didn't have any friends in America. The closest she came was the sweet old lady who Kagome bought groceries from every other week.


	2. Chapter 2

"Kagome?" April called out. "Kagome?"

"You're back late," Kagome greeted, and sat up from where she'd been waiting for her aunt on the couch. Blue eyes zeroed in on the bump to the head that April was sporting. "What happened?" she demanded, even as she forced her aunt to sit down and went to get the first-aid kit.

"I _almost_ got mugged," April admitted. "Whoever my rescuers were though, they left this behind," she added, and pulled a weapon Kagome was somewhat familiar with out of her handbag.

"A sai?" Kagome asked, curious, and fingered the tip of the weapon for a moment before she shook her head and returned to the task of tending to her aunt's injuries. "And why did you pick it up?" she asked as she got on with the first-aid.

"Well, my rescuers had vanished, and I figured _you_ might like a new toy. I know _I_ don't know how to use it," April confessed with a smile, only to wince when Kagome touched her head.

"Well, thank you," Kagome answered with a smile. "It is a nice sai, but I suspect that it is missed by its owner. Sai are used in pairs pretty much always."

"See? I didn't even know that," April said with an amused, sardonic, lopsided smile. "I thought it was just a blunt dagger."

Kagome shook her head. "Sai are a defensive weapon, more like a truncheon than a dagger. You use one to block, maybe trap the weapon of your enemy, and then you strike with the other. It may be mostly blunt, but the tips can be sharpened to nasty points."

April smiled at her niece. "So you like it then?" she asked.

Kagome giggled. "I do," she agreed. "I'll see if I can hunt down any more sai, so I'll have a pair, rather than one lonely one. I've been wanting to try them out anyway, and running a curiosity shop is good for those sorts of searches," she said happily.

When she had finally cleared the last of the antiques from the shop, as well as sold the things she'd brought back from the Sengoku, Kagome had decided to... convert the business. Antiques weren't something that really circulated all that well, really, and with the small fortune she'd made selling all those antiques, Kagome had the leisure to do what she wanted for a decade or two before she'd have to worry about anything more pressing than taxes.

What she ran now was a business where people could walk in with a request and a deposit, and she'd have it for them within the month. Of course, she kept a few things on the shelves for the walk-in, walk-out trade, generally things that people had ordered and then changed their minds about, but those sold fairly quickly as well.

~oOo~

"You could have called me last night April," the man scolded. "Call it a quirk, but I like to know when one of my best reporters has been mugged."

"I wasn't mugged, Charles," April objected calmly as Kagome did the morning check on the bump she'd gotten last night.

"Being mugged implies having belongings stolen," Kagome agreed. "April was attacked, but not mugged."

"Not helping, sweetie," April scolded lowly. "Besides," she added to her boss. "I knew you'd just worry and you'd rush over here, like you did this morning."

"Yeah, well from now on security is going to escort you to that stone-age van of yours every night," the balding man who was April's boss insisted.

April fought down laughter as she raised a hand in salute. "Yes sir!" she answered him.

"I'm not kidding April," Charles insisted. "The stories you're doing right now are making you a lot of enemies, and not just at City Hall."

"Uh," April sighed in reluctant capitulation. "Hey Danny, how's school going?"

"Fine," the boy answered from where he was sitting at the breakfast table in the kitchen.

Kagome quietly scoffed. She was a year older than him, getting ready to graduate, and the school they both attended was large, but she practically _never_ saw him there. Not even when she walked past detention hall at lunch time.

"Oh, wonderful," Charles agreed sarcastically. "So wonderful in fact that I have to drive him to the gate every morning now just to make sure he goes. Why can't all teenagers be as sensible as your Kagome?" he complained to his employee.

April smirked, and Kagome giggled at the flattery.

"Maybe it's just because I'm older? Or maybe because I was raised in Japan?" Kagome offered. "All done," she added to April, and moved into the kitchen.

Danny pulled on a set of headphones.

"And that's what he does when he wants to ignore me," Charles said as he waved a hand at the turned back of his son. "Sticks his head in those things. I wonder where the hell he got those things, anyway."

"Charles, give the kid a break," April advised.

Charles sighed and moved to the window. "Just what is going on out there?" he asked unhappily. "I've never seen anything like this before. It's like the city's falling apart. You can't even step outside in the _daytime_ any more."

"You're exaggerating," April informed him. "Sure, the gang wars and crime-rate aren't getting better, but they do still stick _mostly_ to certain areas and certain hours."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome saw Danny reach for her aunt's wallet. Quick as a whip, she smacked her hand down on his. The slap would make the boy's hand sting – she'd used her miko energy to make sure of it – but it hadn't been loud, so neither one of the adults noticed the boy trying to shake out the stinging, or the girl giving him a glare that could freeze water.

She'd picked it up from Sesshoumaru, not that he knew, and had plenty of opportunity to practice it on Inuyasha until she'd perfected it.

Appropriately, Danny cowered before her.

"With all I've been hearing out of Little Tokyo, Sterns is going to have a lot to answer for," April was saying to Charles.

"Hey, now take it easy," he ordered. "He's already got the mayor breathing down my neck."

"The police officer doesn't like that an investigative journalist is getting more answers than he is," Kagome pitched in smugly as she returned to her aunt with April's lunch, already packed in a brown paper bag. "And will continue to do so."

April smiled over at Kagome. "And all thanks to you," she credited. "Since I can speak their home language, they talk to me more than pushy, racist policemen."

~oOo~

Kagome sighed as she closed up the shop. School had been mentally exhausting, but it was finals week, so that was to be expected. She'd only exacerbated her headache with homework and then going through her contacts to see who would be able to supply her with a sai or two.

And now it was getting late, and her aunt still wasn't back. She had _one_ interview in the _middle_ of the day. April should have been back _hours_ ago. It should have been one of those rare days when Kagome came home to her aunt, rather than the other way around.

Then, of all things, just as she was locking the door, she saw her aunt climb out of the manhole on the other side of the street.

"Ah, I'd like to invite you all in, but, uh -" she said, looking back down at the manhole. "I don't have anything to offer you guys except... frozen pizza."

Kagome blinked as a kappa popped straight up out of the manhole.

"Let's go for it!" it exclaimed.

Kagome blinked again. What was a kappa doing in New York?

April looked briefly over at her building, and spotted her niece standing in the door of the shop. It was across the street, and dark, but she could clearly see that Kagome's eyes were fixed on the figure that had leapt out of the manhole. There was also what looked like an expression of longing on the girl's face.

"You said the magic word!" agreed another green body as it climbed, more slowly, from the manhole.

"O-okay," April allowed weakly.

"You live in a store?" the first one asked, even as the second finished climbing out of the manhole and a third followed.

"Above, actually," April answered. "And... with my niece," she added, and gave a gesture to where Kagome was standing in the door of the curiosity shop, staring at them. There were now four green figures on the street, the last of them moving the manhole back into place.

And they'd stopped moving the second April indicated Kagome's presence.

Kagome was aware that she was very close to crying. Until that moment, she hadn't realised how very _much_ she had missed seeing people like these four. People who were so completely removed from the norm. She forced back the tears and smiled brightly at all of them.

"Please come in," she welcomed.

"Kagome?" April asked, surprised. "You're... uh..."

"April screamed when she saw us," supplied one of the... no, they weren't kappas. Kagome wasn't sure what they were, but now that they were closer, she could see that they weren't kappas. "Some reason you're not?"

Kagome shrugged at the question. "I was raised in Japan," she said, her standard explanation for why she didn't react to the same things that the Americans all around her did. If 'this is New York' didn't work to explain something, then 'I come from Japan' usually did.

April frowned. "No, that doesn't explain it," she countered softly, confused by her niece and not for the first time.

Kagome shrugged again. "I thought at first that you had met some friendly kappas," she offered to her aunt. "I can see now that they're not kappas, but they do seem friendly, so I don't see any point in screaming," she added with a smile, and stepped aside to let her aunt and their guests into the building through the shop.

"We're turtles," explained the one wearing a blue mask over his face and carried a pair of swords sheathed on the back of his shell. "I'm Leo, that's Donnie, Mikey, and Raph," he presented, pointing in turn to the one wearing the purple mask, the orange mask, and finally the one with the red mask.

Kagome noted that the one called Raph had one sai strapped to his shell.

"I believe I have something of yours," she said softly, and stopped by the counter of the shop. She'd been juggling the sai over one hand all afternoon while she did her homework and then shop duties with the other. She'd intended to take it back up to her room after closing, and had left it at the counter to collect with her homework as she went passed.

"Thank you," Raph said, taking the sai back from her.

Kagome smiled. "Thank _you_ for protecting my aunt," Kagome countered, and bowed to him.

~oOo~

Kagome got the story in full over re-heated pizza, and got to enjoy watching her aunt slowly relax around the giant, humanoid turtles, and then finally laugh like a hyena at Mikey's – full name Michelangelo – impressions. Kagome couldn't help but laugh too. They were terrible, and as such, terribly funny.

The fun seemed to come to a close when Leo – Leonardo – said they'd better be getting back to their master, an old rat called Splinter.

"Will we ever see you guys again?" April asked as she grabbed the door-handle, stopping their guests from leaving without giving her an answer, while at the same time playing the good hostess by being the one to see the guests out.

"Indubitably," Mikey agreed happily.

"Well, that just depends how fast you stock your pizza," Leo replied.

"Deal," April answered quickly.

"Give us some warning before you swing by though," Kagome requested with a smile, and pressed a piece of paper with the phone number of the apartment and the shop both written on into Raph's hand.

"See ya," offered Donnie – Donatello.

Kagome joined her aunt at the door to wave goodbye, just as Raph – Raphael – passed through the door and gave them a silent wave.

"Bye," the two women offered softly.

April closed the door once they were out of sight, and leaned against it. Still apparently in shock over the events of her evening.

"This _is_ New York," Kagome offered to her aunt, trying to keep in laughter.

April pursed her lips at her niece and gave a fond swat to the girl's thick black hair. "Alright missy, time you were getting ready for bed. It's a school day tomorrow, so you need sleep."

~oOo~

Kagome was in the middle of making breakfast when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" April called out through a yawn.

"It's me, Charles."

Gathering herself and closing her dressing gown, April opened her door. "Charles. What's up?"

Because he wouldn't be at the door _this early_ in the morning if there wasn't something. Yesterday it had been that April had been attacked the night before, but there was no way he could have known she'd been jumped in the subway last night.

"Uh, April," he started as he entered, and pushed his glasses nervously up his nose. "Uh, listen. I've, uh. You. Have been working awful hard on this story lately. Why don't you take it easy for a while?" he suggested.

Kagome frowned and leaned around the door frame between the living space and the kitchen. "What does Sterns have on you?" she asked pointedly, cutting off her aunt before April could object to her boss's proposition, and causing both Charles and his son Danny to flinch slightly. "Ah," she said, narrowing her eyes at the slightly younger teen. "Got caught by someone less kind than me, did you, Daniel?" she asked the boy.

"What?" Charles and April asked, both surprised, but for different reasons.

"Daniel went for your wallet yesterday," Kagome explained to her aunt. "I gave his hand a good slap. I suppose I should have said something as well."

"Charles?" April asked seriously.

Charles sighed. "Yes," he admitted. "Damned if I know why, but Danny's been stealing. April, please, either take some time off or _promise_ me you're not going to push any buttons today. You're a good reporter. I don't want to have to let you go because of how _well_ you're doing with this story."

"Let me go?" April repeated, stunned. "Charles..." she hesitated. "I'm not going to back down, _or_ let someone else have my story," she said firmly. "And the crime rate in this city is _my_ story. However that goes."

"Pick your fights, April," Kagome advised her aunt. "The police aren't the enemy. They're incompetent, but that incompetence isn't the _real_ story."

April sighed. "Alright," she agreed. "Fine. I'll stop picking on Sterns and City Hall."

Charles sighed in relief. "Thank you."

April then turned her gaze on Danny. "But I've got questions for you," she said firmly, a smirk curling her lips. That predatory look she got when she thought she had found a new lead on her story.

Danny hunched over, his bad posture worsening defensively against the probing of an adult.

"I don't think Danny has anything to do with what you're looking at April," Charles intervened gently. "But, after school," he allowed when he saw that stubborn glint in her eye. "Consider _that_ your punishment for doing something so stupid as to cause this mess," he added to his son.

An hour later, just before April walked out the door, Charles called them to let them know that Danny had bolted from the car in the middle of morning traffic. Gone. The man was about ready to have kittens, he was so worried about his son.

April commiserated and promised to keep an eye out for him, but once she hung up had sighed unhappily. There went her lead, and while Charles would have the whole city looking for his son, there wasn't really anything else that could be done about the boy's disappearance. And April had her own struggle with morning traffic to get through.

Kagome didn't have that particular worry, as she would run her morning rout. It let her get in some morning exercise. A ten-block dash and dodging foot-traffic at the same time. She arrived at school in time to duck into the bathroom and change out of her shorts and tank-top and into less sweaty clothes, as well as brush her hair and put it up with her lovely, sharp, daggers-disguised-as-ornamental-hair-sticks. She'd only not had time to put her hair up her first week, when she was still getting used to the route.


	3. Chapter 3

"O'Neil residence, Kagome speaking," Kagome said into the receiver as she answered the phone.

"_Hey Kagome."_

"Raph!" Kagome chirped in delighted answer. It had been a few days since she had met the turtles when her aunt invited them up for pizza after saving her from a mugging. "Hey, what's up?"

"_Uh, our home got a bit busted,"_ Raph confessed. _"Some crazy little robot from Stock-tronics was unleashed in the sewers to reduce the rat population. Didn't seem to care too much if it ate its way through the walls of the sewers along the way. We were wondering if you'd be able to do some shopping for us?"_ he asked hopefully.

"If you guys have the cash, I can get the goods," Kagome promised. "Are you guys alright though? If the robots are destroying the sewers and hunting down rats..."

"_Yeah,"_ Raph said. _"We're fine. Got the whole mess sorted out. You didn't see it on the news? Stock-tronics is bust and the guy in charge is missing. Don't know where he went, but his machines went up in smoke. We won't be bugged by those things again."_

"I'm glad to hear it," Kagome said, relieved. "I'm afraid I didn't see it on the news though. Well, not yet. I watch the six o'clock news with April over dinner, so I'll see the latest then. Was beating on the bots fun?"

"_Master Splinter probably smashed more of them with his cane than the four of us combined when we first met 'em,"_ Raph replied. _"So our pride's a little damaged along with all those robots and our old pad. But yeah, good anger-management therapy, bustin' up all those little machines. Master Splinter's already found us a new place too, but it needs some fixing up."_

Kagome smiled. "I'm guessing that's why you called, and you're still in the sewers?" she asked.

"_You're right twice,"_ Raph confirmed, a smile in his voice.

"Well, give me the address of the nearest manhole and I'll come along after dinner and give you boys a hand," she offered. "You can give me your shopping lists at the same time."

"_You're awesome Kagome,"_ Raph praised. _"We're below the South Point drainage junction."_

"Nice and easy," Kagome quipped as she raised an eyebrow he wouldn't see. "Does that have a _surface_ street address?"

"_Oh, right. Tell you what, I'll come pick you up, how's that?"_ Raph offered. _"We'll go from the manhole near your place. That way, you'll know how to come visit us any time."_

Kaogme smiled. "Come pick me up at seven," she agreed. "I can't stay too late though, I've got school in the morning."

"_School... I dunno whether to pity you or be jealous,"_ Raph said. _"Since, ya know, we can't go to school for obvious reasons."_

"Just a couple more days and I'll have graduated," Kagome replied with a pleased sigh. "I suggest you don't dwell. I can give you all my old school books though if you want."

Raph chuckled on the other end of the phone. _"If you've still got the science ones, Donnie would love 'em, but I'm guessin' you didn't take shop."_

"You guess right," Kagome agreed. "It wasn't an option back in my old high school, and senior year was deemed too late for me to enter the subject by my current school, but never mind. Maybe you guys could teach me. I'll see you tonight," she promised.

"_Seven. See ya then!"_ Raph agreed.

~oOo~

Kagome had taken to running the ten blocks to school, that was true, and it definitely kept her fit, but she hadn't completely abandoned the bicycle. Actually, not long after she'd moved to New York, and after she'd gotten her dual citizenship sorted out (her father had been an American citizen, so Kagome was entitled), Kagome had gotten herself a motorbike license.

Her aunt had the old van that she loved, and Kagome loved it – and could legally drive it – too, but Kagome had wanted something that was just hers. A motorbike wasn't as expensive as a car, and even though she hadn't taken shop class, the teacher there had been willing to show her how to change the oil by herself. Anything more complicated, she would have to go to the garage down the street for. Thankfully, she hadn't had any incidents or accidents yet.

Even more thankfully, none of the gangs in the area had cared to break the lock on her aunt's garage, so no one had hot-wired her ride and made off with it.

Kagome was not going to be taking her motorbike down into the sewers though. There was no way it would fit down a manhole for one, and she didn't want to risk crashing it down there for two. She pulled her push-bike off the stand she'd set up – she'd been using it as an exercise bike in the garage, rather than riding it in the streets – and wheeled it over to the manhole across the street.

The manhole that was pushed up from below and shifted to the side.

"Right on time," Raph greeted with a smile.

"Hey," Kagome returned. "Think this will fit down there?"

"Should do," Raph agreed. "I'll drop down, and you can pass it to me before you come through yourself."

Kagome nodded in agreement, and made sure her bag was secure over her shoulder as Raph disappeared into the darkness again.

"Okay!" Raph called up.

Kagome lowered her bike rear-wheel first, holding onto the handle-bars.

"Got it!"

Kagome released her hold, and the bike vanished. There was no loud crash, just a gentle shifting of the chain, and then it was her turn to descend into the sewer.

"Your bike has a basket," Raph teased lightly when she touched down, a smirk on his face.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "It's also got a bit on the back where I can hang bags, or have a passenger," she countered, and swung a leg over her bike. "Now, which way?"

Raph's smirk grew. "Straight ahead," he said, pointing the way.

Kagome pushed off, and Raph hopped on, occasionally giving directions.

"Here we are," Raph proclaimed, a fifteen minute bike-ride later. "Our new pad. Home sweet sewer. Heh, we're still cleanin' it up an' all, so don't judge too harshly."

Kagome smiled at her friend. "Hey, helping to make it habitable is why I'm here," she reminded him fondly.

"Just through here," Raph indicated, and waved her ahead of him grandly.

"The Turtle Cave must be set for maximum entertainment potential!" they heard Mikey say as they entered.

"The Turtle Cave?" Donnie repeated, a little incredulous. "That is so lame."

"Well, what would you call our new digs?" Mikey asked. "The Shell-ter?"

"Uh, how about, the Sewer of Solitude?" Donnie offered.

"Terapin Station?" Mikey countered.

"The School for Gifted Reptiles?" Donnie suggested.

"The Hall of Nin-Justice!" Mikey proclaimed.

"We will call this place 'home'," Splinter informed the two. "Now, what is keeping Leonardo and Raphael?"

"Well, Leo's getting the last of our stuff from the old lair," Mikey reminded.

"And depending on how the new Sewer Slider is performing, he should be back any minute," Donnie added. "Not sure where Raph is though."

"Raph has returned!" Raphael corrected happily. "And I brought a friend."

"Kagome!" Mikey greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey, Kagome!" Donnie called happily.

Kagome waved back to them, and let Raph guide her over to meet the old rat that was father and teacher to her turtle friends.

"Sensei, this is Kagome O'Neil," Raphael presented. "Kagome, this is Master Splinter."

Kagome bowed to the old rat. "I am honoured to meet you, Splinter-sensei," she greeted.

"Hm, and why have you come here, Miss O'Neil?" Splinter questioned.

Kagome smiled as she straightened. "To help all you man-types get this place clean," she answered. "My experience with the male of any species is that they can't clean worth peanuts."

Splinter laughed. "This is not so untrue as I might wish it to be," the rat admitted with great humour. "Your assistance will be most welcomed."

"Kagome has also agreed to help us buy anything that we need from the surface," Raphael added, a small smile on his own face. "Since we can't really go to the shops ourselves. We've managed so far, but some things we really can't get for ourselves."

Splinter nodded in acknowledgement of this. "We all thank you for such assistance, Miss O'Neil," he said.

"Please, Splinter-sensei, call me Kagome. Miss O'Neil is my aunt," Kagome said with a smile.

"Yes," Splinter agreed unhappily. "The reporter."

"He's uh, less than thrilled about the fact we've revealed ourselves to humans after all these years," Raph explained quietly. "And your aunt didn't even know us a full day before she introduced us to another human."

Kagome shrugged. "April sticks to reporting criminal activity. I think she was actually hoping you guys _wouldn't_ accept her invitation for frozen pizza. She likes you guys, but she moved back to being in denial of your existence as soon as she closed the door behind you the other night," she offered.

"And yourself?" Splinter asked seriously.

"Splinter-sensei, your sons are my first friends in this city apart from my aunt, and I've been living here for a year," Kagome answered. "I'm not about to jeopardise that, or, in all honesty, be in a hurry to share," she admitted. "Besides, this is New York. No one is going to care if I start yelling about giant turtles living in the sewers. It's kinda... part of the local folklore. Along with alligators. Uh, there _aren't_ any alligators in the sewers though, right?"

"We haven't found any yet," Mikey called out.

"And we bin livin' down here for more than fifteen years," Raph added. "Think we woulda found one by now if they were down here."

Kagome nodded, reassured.

Splinter sighed. "Very well," he allowed. "I will trust you with this. Truly, Miss Kagome, I do thank you. I just worry for my sons."

Kagome nodded. "I understand, Splinter-sensei," she answered. "Now, I've only got until ten, then I've got to get home. Only two days of school left, I don't want to miss them. So, where can I help out?"

~oOo~

"That's quite the shopping list," Kagome remarked as she looked over the five separate lists of requested items that the turtles and Splinter had given her. "But I should be able to get some of this at wholesale price, since I run a business myself. Question is, how are _you_ guys going to pay for it?" she asked them seriously.

Raph smirked. "You'd be amazed what folks drop down the drain by mistake," he said happily.

"We sure didn't go to a shop and buy our weapons," Leo agreed with a gesture to where his twin katanas were strapped to his shell.

Kagome's eyes lit up in anticipation.

"And except occasionally for pizza delivered to the drain, we haven't spent any of it," Mikey added.

It was Donnie though who produced the back pack stuffed with cash. Everything from nickels and dimes through up to hundred dollar bills.

Kagome whistled, impressed. "Well, you hang on to that. I'll bring receipts when I've got your shopping done, and you can pay me back then. Some of it might be second hand too," she cautioned.

"That is perfectly alright," Splinter assured her. "We are quite used to making do and not having new."

Kagome smirked over at the machine that Leo had returned on. "You wouldn't know it," she quipped.

"Don's a genius," Mikey praised happily.

Kagome laughed in agreement. "Alright, well, I'll skip opening the shop and just come back here after school tomorrow, say about five? That will give me time to do some of your shopping, and have more time to help out here. There's still work to be done, after all," she pointed out.

"You got a deal," Raph agreed. "I'll meet you at the manhole in your street again."

"Take the Sewer Slider," Donnie offered. "If Kagome gets any shopping done for us, we shouldn't make her carry it here on her push-bike."

"Will do!" Raph agreed happily. "Now come on Missy," he mock-ordered as he offered his arm to Kagome. "Let's get you home."

Kagome smiled up at Raph and happily attached herself to his arm. "Hopefully, you guys will find another door for me to use. Some of the stuff on your shopping lists won't _fit_ down a manhole," she pointed out over her shoulder as she gave them a wave. Then she was gone around the corner with Raph.

"Huh, girl's got a point there," Donnie allowed.

~oOo~

"Turtles and gentle-rats!" Kagome called out, much like a ringmaster in a circus, yelling in delight at the adrenaline rush of riding the Sewer Slider with Raph at the wheel. It wasn't her first time riding in the machine. She'd gotten to enjoy this rush the previous three days as well, every time she came down to help clean the place some more. This was the first time that she was bringing some of the things on the lists she'd been given though. "Kagome Higurashi's emporium of wonders is proud to present to you!"

Raph pulled the machine to a halt.

"Whew!" Kagome cheered happily, and hopped down to give a flourishing presentation. "Your shopping."

"Higurashi?" Leo asked, confused.

Kagome shrugged. "O'Neil is my dad's name, but when I was living in Japan, I used my mother's, and even after a year of being Kagome O'Neil, Higurashi is still the name I'm more used to," she explained easily. Then she blinked as something registered. "That," she said, and pointed to a great large area where the wall had fallen away and revealed the frontage of what appeared to be a truly antiquated (but very large) elevator. "Wasn't there yesterday."

"Heh, yeah... Funny story. Um, after Raph got back from walking you home last night, we got into a bit of a fight," Mikey started.

"My temper got away from me," Raph added, ashamed of himself. "When they snapped me out of it, I went top-side to get some air."

"And while Raph was gone, Mikey started bugging me to make the armoured truck we got into a 'battle shell'," Donnie said, joining in the story-telling. "I got sick of him bugging me, and gave him something to do."

"Hang a picture on the wall," Mikey explained. "But the nail wouldn't go in, so I got a bigger nail, and a bigger hammer, and I get the picture mounted, but the wall crumbled away and _that_ was there!"

"And it goes up into a warehouse that's been abandoned for _ages_," Leo finished with a smile. "Donnie's made sure it's safe already," he added in assurance.

"Yeah, it can even carry the weight of the Battle Shell, no problem-o," Mikey declared happily.

"We now have an alternate door. Trips through the sewer to get here are no longer required," Raph explained.

Kagome smiled. "That's great," she said in relief. "Don't get me wrong, the sewer isn't _too_ bad, and the Sewer Slider is _fantastic_, but it's still not ever going to be my favourite place to go for a stroll."

"Heh, no offence taken," Raph assured her.

"Now, I want to hear the _full_ story of what you got up to when you came to the surface and _didn't_ come visit me," Kagome insisted, tapping Raph on his shell.

"It was late!" he defended. "I'd only said g'bye less than an hour before!"

Kagome planted her hands on her hips. "That doesn't tell me what you _did_ get up to."

"I met someone with more anger issues than me," Raph admitted, and launched into the full story of meeting the guy who wore a hockey mask and beat up people who were members of the Purple Dragons gang. Excessively.


	4. Chapter 4

Presented with the abandoned warehouse that was surface-level above the turtle's home, Kagome did a slow turn until she located the office attached. Every warehouse had somewhere to keep the records of what was moved in and out of it, and Kagome attacked the filing cabinet in there with a smile.

"Jackpot!" she cheered.

"What is it Kagome?" Leo asked.

She turned and smiled at the turtle. "Ownership papers," she answered as she brandished the dusty document. "I'll take these to City Hall tomorrow, and get the property legally put under my name. Things stay abandoned for too long, City Hall eventually does something about it."

"Uh... didn't think of that," Leo admitted sheepishly.

Kagome smiled. "Well, you haven't lived on the surface and had to think about business transactions or storage facilities. Speaking of which, owning a warehouse will make things a lot easier. No one thinks twice about delivering to a warehouse. Not that people think all that much of delivering to the shop since I've got my business established."

"So... would you be able to get some stuff for this?" Mikey asked, and waved his arm to present the armoured truck that they had parked on one side of the building. "We've got until Friday night to make it turtle-ready."

Kagome sighed. "Gimme a list," she instructed. "I'll go see the dealers tomorrow. Orders still might not be here before Friday, but I can ask for a rush. You're lucky I've graduated now and don't have school taking up my time."

"We really appreciate it Kagome," Donnie promised her sincerely. "And if the stuff comes late, then we'll make do until it gets here," he added with a crooked smile. "We're good at that."

~oOo~

"Hey April," Kagome called when she got back to the apartment she shared with her aunt that evening. "I found your vigilante in the hockey mask."

"What?!" April yelped happily.

Kagome smiled. "Well, Raphael found him," she corrected. "And he'll be in Central Park, Friday night. If you can stand to wait until I signal a clear on the turtle's presence, you should be able to get an interview with the guy."

"Yes!" April cheered. "You're the _best_ Kagome!" she insisted, and tackled the girl in a tight hug.

"Just remember to keep the turtles out of it," she reminded.

April nodded quickly. "Of course," she promised. "They're your first friends in this city. I'm not going to risk them being taken away by some lab and experimented on." April sighed. "I just wish you'd make some _human_ friends as well," she lamented gently. "Someone you can go out to the movies with or something."

Kagome giggled. "Maybe I'll work on that someday," she allowed, rather than promised. She wasn't sure how dedicated she'd be to following through, after all, so she wouldn't promise.

~oOo~

"The sounds of conflict are many from deep within Central Park tonight," April reported quietly into her microphone as she crouched low with her camera man. "However dedicated I am to getting a story, my crew aren't so keen to risk being mugged, so we've got someone much tougher willing to do ride-bys, to let us know when it's safe to leave cover."

Kagome sat astride her shiny white motorbike, white helmet over her head and hiding her face, and black bike gear hiding her figure completely. Her long black hair was braided and tucked down inside her jacket. The only thing anybody would be able to use to identify her would be the licence plate on the bike, but April had promised that she'd have that blurred by the editing department.

The sound of people getting pulverised calmed down, and Kagome kicked her bike into gear.

Behind the visor, Kagome raised her eyebrow at the sight of Raph and the guy in the hockey mask having a wrestling match off to the side of where a large number of people wearing the Purple Dragon symbol were laid out on the ground.

"Ahem," she coughed pointedly, calling their attention away from the tussle.

"Huh? Who're you?" asked the only other human present.

"April O'Neil would like an interview, Mr Vigilante," Kagome answered. "You can keep your mask on, if you like. Guys, time to head below again."

"You got it!" Leo agreed, and waved for his brothers to pile back into the Battle Shell.

"Hey," Raph said softly to Kagome as he pulled his own bike upright. "Nice ride."

Kagome smiled, unseen behind her visor. "You too."

Raph chuckled. "I have a great family. See ya!"

"Me? On TV?" the guy with the hockey mask asked.

Kagome shrugged and turned her bike around. Time to give her aunt the thumbs up, letting her know it was safe to enter the site of the confrontation, and then she was going to head back to the apartment. Right now, it was late and her bed was calling her name.

She'd catch up with the turtles tomorrow.

~oOo~

Kagome parked her bike in the warehouse, next to the Battle Shell and Raph's Shell Cycle, and decided to get busy cleaning the warehouse office until the guys below remembered that she was due to visit, and sent up the old elevator for her. It was a little ridiculous, but they actually still had no clue on where the 'down' button was top-side, which was a little frustrating since most elevators it was right next to where the doors would open, but not so for this one. Maybe she'd find it while she was cleaning.

The office chair was vintage. Not quite old enough to be an antique, but there would probably be someone willing to pay a good price for it. Hopefully enough to cover its replacement by a more comfortable chair. This one was clearly designed to make sure the person on shift didn't go to sleep on the job.

Thankfully, Kagome only had to sit in it for half an hour before the crazy elevator rose out of the floor.

She did not expect her welcome party to be Splinter.

"Sensei," she greeted as she hurried out of the office. A few feet away from the large rat, she stopped and bowed low in respect. "I hope you are well?"

"Yes, Kagome," Splinter answered. "I am well, though I have a concern."

"If there's anything I can do to help," Kagome offered.

Splinter sighed. "That is just it, Kagome. Since you have met my sons, they have become less concerned with their training. I do not begrudge them time to do as they wish, but they have become a great deal more..." he hesitated, trying to find the right word.

Kagome smiled in understanding. "Like the human, rebellious teenage boys that are all over the place?" she suggested. "Perhaps... perhaps I could join in the training?" she asked hopefully. "I'll follow every instruction you give to the very best of my ability."

"My instructions include _not_ visiting the surface except for the occasional training exercise," Splinter pointed out. "Can you also do _that_?" he asked.

Kagome thought about that, a frown on her face. "Give me a two weeks?" she requested. "To get all my stuff ready to move in?"

Splinter relaxed, and nodded in agreement. "Thank you," he said. "I believe that you will be a good example for my boys."

Kagome bowed. "And I know how to cook more things than just pizza," she added with a giggle.

~oOo~

"Are you sure about this Kagome?" April asked nervously, even as she helped her niece pack up all of her belongings.

"Absolutely," Kagome reaffirmed. "It's not like I'll be out of contact. Donnie has already made me a device he calls a 'shell cell', and I'm promised an internet connection, so I'll be able to email and call you _and_ Mama. Besides, a few of the Purple Dragons showed up at the shop yesterday."

"They _what_?!" April yelped. "Why?"

"It seems that they're expanding their territory," Kagome answered seriously. "They wanted to hustle me for protection money."

April bit back a laugh. "Did you call the ambulance or the police when you finished refusing?" she asked, amused.

Kagome giggled. "Well, both," she admitted. "But really, I think it's time you sold this place and got an apartment in a _safer_ part of town. Maybe closer to the station? I'll be fine living with the turtles and Splinter-sensei. Really I will," Kagome promised. "And I'll always be sure to call you any time they come across a story."

April sighed. "Alright," she capitulated. "I don't know why I waste time worrying about you Kagome. You're more competent than I am, and I'm nearly twice your age."

Kagome just smiled innocently and slipped another of her decorative daggers into her hair.

April sighed. "Fine, once we're done packing up your stuff, we'll pack mine and I'll start looking for a new apartment."

~oOo~

April dropped Kagome and all her stuff off at the warehouse. It was a case where the van – however antiquated it was – was more useful than Kagome's motorbike, and even then it still took a couple of trips. Boxes were stashed, for now, and April gave Kagome one last hug before she drove off.

The turtles would help Kagome actually move in to her new living quarters.

But first, she had to let them know that they were going to have a new person living in the lair with them. She was fairly sure Splinter hadn't told them yet. Fortunately for her, the button _had_ been found to get the elevator top-side without having someone have to come up in it first.

She stepped out into the lair only to find all four turtle brothers and their master balancing on top of bamboo poles that had been stood upright around the entire space.

Kagome grinned. She hadn't gotten to train like _this_ since she left the Sengoku, and then the training had been extremely scattered. A little with Sango, improving Kagome's balance. A little with Miroku, improving her focus. A little with Sesshoumaru, Shippo and Rin, improving their ability to 'escape' across a difficult terrain. Sesshoumaru was the most intense of her teachers. Always.

Carefully, avoiding notice, Kagome approached the bamboo, and when she reached the one nearest her, she removed her shoes and pulled herself up. Silently, she joined in the fun.

"My sons," Splinter started, and smiled a little wider when he saw Kagome standing on a pole behind his boys. "Tonight our training shall improve two essential disciplines. The way of balance," he said, and gave a clap.

The lights went out.

"And the way of invisibility."

"Dude, you put in the clapper?" Mikey asked happily.

Only to get smacked on the knuckles.

"Ow!"

"Michaelangelo," Splinter scolded. "The way of invisibility also includes the way of silence," he sternly reminded his son. "I suggest you employ both if you wish to avoid my walking stick."

While Splinter went one way, Kagome happily went another, and swiped at Mikey while Splinter swiped at Leo. The difference was that Kagome supported herself on one hand and swiped at Mikey with her right leg, while Splinter used his walking stick.

"Huh? Woah!" Mikey yelped as he was forced to flip onto a new bamboo pole.

Donnie launched a kick at Splinter, which the old rat dodged, and Raph launched an attack of his own – but Splinter dodged that too.

There was a clap.

"Peek-a-boo," Mikey called to Splinter, a smile on his face. "I see you."

Splinter used his walking stick to dislodge his son from his perch.

"Hey, don't I at least get points for creativity?" Mikey asked as he caught himself on his bamboo pole.

"A creative mind must be balanced by a disciplined body," Splinter answered firmly, and clapped so that the lights once more went out. "We must learn stillness, and alertness, for they are the only defence against the unexpected."

The sound of the elevator doors opening and the brief pool of light that shone out from the open doors caught Kagome's attention, and honestly, she didn't know how the others missed it when _she_ arrived, though the lights hadn't been out then. She sure as heck didn't know how they missed it this time.

Then the bamboo got knocked into and sent the turtles and their teacher tumbling. For that matter, Kagome went to the floor too, but she'd sort-of seen it coming, so she landed on her feet, rather than on her back, or on her hands and knees.

Splinter didn't take too kindly to this new intruder, this stranger in his home that he didn't know, and was quick to tackle him to the ground.

"Master Splinter! No! He's a friend!" Leo protested quickly.

Mikey clapped his hands to bring the lights up.

"This is Casey, the nut-ca- uh, the guy we told you about," Donnie added.

"You remember? The igalante-vay?" Mikey prodded.

"We figured it'd be okay to give him access to the lair," Raph added. "You know, for emergencies an' stuff."

Splinted climbed off the man. "Please forgive my rash action," he apologised to the man in the hockey mask.

"Hey, no problem," Casey agreed, and pulled the mask off.

"Although next time you would be wise to heed the ancient Japanese proverb," Splinter growled as he pushed the more pointed end of his walking stick at the man's jugular. "_Phone first_."

Kagome bit back a giggle, and set about helping Splinter collect up the bamboo.

"Wow Raph, your crib's even nicer than you said," Casey complimented.

"You didn't come down here for the nickel tour," Raph countered. "What's the four-one-one street-side?"

"Graffiti," Casey answered. "It's everywhere. All over town."

"Er, I think I speak for everyone in the room when I say: duh!" Mikey said.

"We're New Yorkers, Casey," Donnie added. "We've seen graffiti before."

Kagome smiled at that as she set the bamboo down where Splinter indicated. Yes, graffiti was all over New York, and very little of it was pretty, though there were _some_ artists out there whose medium of choice was the spray can.  
"Ah-ah," Casey countered. "Not _this_ kind," he said, and held up a photograph. The graffiti on display in the shot was four turtles speared on a sword like a demented kabob. "I think somebody's trying to send you a message."

"Bleg, talk about getting the point," Mikey complained.

"Do all the tags look like this?" Leo asked.

"Some are a little more graphic," Casey replied.

Kagome slipped in and stole the picture, surprising everybody as she considered it from two feet over from the group.

"Hey! Who's the broad?" Casey asked, surprised.

"Kagome!" the boys all greeted in surprise.

"When did you get here?" Mikey asked.

Kagome smirked. "In time for the training session. You guys really need to work on being more aware of your surroundings. Now, what have you boys gotten up to in the two weeks I haven't been to visit?" she asked.

"It's kinda a long story," Donnie deferred.

"Thank you for this information, Mr Jones," Splinter said. "Now, if you don't mind -"

Kagome coughed subtly.

"We have to help Kagome move in," Splinter finished with a smile.

"What?"

"Move in?"

"Really, Master Splinter?"

"Awesome!"

"Yes, my sons, really," Splinter confirmed.

"All my stuff is in boxes in the warehouse. It just has to come down," Kagome added with a smile.

"Don't you guys want to put the smack-down on the scum who did this?" Casey asked, a little frustrated.

"Well, yeah, but this stinks of a set-up," Mikey apologised.

"They're just trying to get under our shells," Donnie added. "Not really a lot of point in stooping to their level."

"But this is a matter of honour!" Casey insisted. "What about that busy-doo-doo stuff you guys are always talkin' about?"

"That's _bushido_," Leo corrected, "and it has nothing to do with getting revenge over a bunch of nasty wall-doodles."

"Sorry Case," Raph apologised with a smile. "Gotta go with my bro's on this one."

"Oh man," Casey complained.

"Suck it," Kagome ordered bluntly, and took a sniff she hadn't meant to. "Ugh, and go home and _bathe_," she advised. "You smell worse than the blocked sewer next to the kosher Chinese place over on Ninth."

"Hey!" Casey objected.

The turtles laughed at him, amused, and walked with him to the elevator. They had to get Kagome's boxes from the warehouse above anyway.

"Aw but -" Casey tried to complain again as they exited the elevator on the surface level.

"Be aware of _this_ old Japanese proverb, Mr Jones," Kagome suggested. "The guest who over-stays his welcome is unlikely to be invited back," she informed him plainly, giving him a few pokes before she went to pick up one of her boxes.

"Sheesh, women," Casey complained.

"Go find some Purple Dragons to beat up if it will make you feel better," Raph offered. "But remember not to over-do it."

"Yeah," Casey agreed, still unhappy that they weren't going to be joining him in finding the people who were making these threatening tags.


	5. Chapter 5

"So, you're really going to be living with us?" Leo asked Kagome happily as they moved her boxes into the elevator.

"Yep," she agreed. "I'm shacking up with the shellsters in sewer central. Hah, say _that_ five times fast."

"I'll pass, thanks," Leo deferred with a smile. "But, what are you going to do down here? We don't have a lot of distractions to offer, especially while we're training."

"I'm going to train with you," Kagome answered.

"You're what?" Raph asked, voice flat with shock.

"I'm. Going. To. Train. With. You," Kagome enunciated with a smile. "If the day comes when I get bored training and cleaning up after you guys, then I'll enrol in an online college or something," she added easily. "There's not a lot that you can't do online these days."

"That's certainly true," Donnie agreed.

"Am I the only one worried about Kagome bein' able to keep up with us during training with Master Splinter?" Raph asked. "We've bin trainin' for most of our lives here, an' Kagome's just gonna join in with our trainin' sessions? We're none of us too good with the first-aid treatment."

"Ooh, good point," Mikey agreed.

Leo and Donnie both winced as well.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Sorry Kagome, I'm just not sure that joining _our_ training sessions is such a good idea for you."

"I'm sure Master Splinter would be willing to start you off at the basics though," Donnie added.

Kagome pouted at them, but didn't say anything.

Splinter spotted the pout when they stepped out of the elevator once more, boxes in their arms, and raised an eyebrow at the girl in question.

"Your boys think I shouldn't jump straight in to training with them," Kagome explained to the old rat. "Think I should start with the basics first."

"Hmm. Well, perhaps it might be wise to test your current level of ability," he allowed. "Is that all of your property?"

Kagome shook her head. "Five more boxes," she answered.

Splinter nodded. "Fetch them down, and put them away. I will test you, and then you may begin the task of unpacking and making yourself at home here," he instructed.

Kagome bowed as much as she could with a large cardboard box in her arms. "Yes, Splinter-sensei," she answered solemnly.

~oOo~

"Uh, you know what?" Mikey asked as the four brothers watched their master and father test their friend. "I retract my concern about Kagome not being able to keep up with our training."

"Yeah," Donnie agreed, a little shakily. "I'm suddenly a lot more worried that we couldn't keep up with her."

"She hasn't even tried to hit Master Splinter yet though," Leo pointed out. "She's been moving purely defensively."

"Maybe, but Splinter hasn't hit _her_ yet either, so I'd say those defensive moves are workin'," Raph added, his own concerns beginning to dwindle. They were still present, but they were lessening.

"I'm not denying that," Leo said. "What I'm saying is that... Kagome isn't actually breathing hard yet, and she hasn't pulled out any kind of weapon. Maybe Kagome only knows how to dodge?" he suggested.

Kagome heard that, and narrowed her eyes as she reached up to pull one of her daggers from her hair.

"You were sayin'?" Raph asked his brother dryly as the blade flashed and Kagome went on the offensive.

"I-it's a hair-stick," Leo tried. "How sharp could it -"

Kagome shaved off some of Splinter's eyebrows.

"- be?"

"Plenty sharp enough," Kagome answered him firmly.

"Haha!" Splinter laughed. "Very good Kagome, very good indeed," he praised. "Please, who taught you before?"

"Well, my first teacher was necessity, and it isn't a forgiving instructor," Kagome started.

"Indeed," Splinter agreed with a nod.

"And then there was Inuyasha, though I mostly learnt how to _not_ do things from him. Sango taught me more of the how _to_, and Miroku honed a few other skills. Then Sesshoumaru-sama took over my training when Shippo asked if _he_ could learn. I didn't get to have many lessons, but Sesshoumaru-sama made sure they all stuck, and he lay out a training regimen for me before I left," Kagome explained. Then she smiled ruefully. "He promised dire consequences if we ever met again and I hadn't kept up my training."

"And where did you get the idea to use hair-ornaments as weapons?" Donnie asked, curious.

Kagome giggled at the memory the question evoked. "Three of my old friends in Japan _insisted_ on dressing me up for a night out before I came to New York, and they pulled my hair so tight, and were so harsh sticking the ornaments in my hair I asked if they were using daggers instead of decorative chopsticks," she recalled. "It spun out from there. All of my hair pieces are dangerous."

"Which means the only time you'd be unarmed is when you've let your hair down," Mikey joked.

Kagome shook her head. "Nope," she corrected. "If I decide to wear my hair down, then I've got other little surprises." Like her bow. If she wore her hair down, then it was nearly impossible to see that she was carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows under that thick black fall.

"Question," Leo requested. "Just how long _is_ your hair?"

"We haven't ever seen it down," Raph agreed.

Kagome giggled again, and started pulling out her hair ornaments. She'd decided to wear most of them that day, rather than pack them up. It was excessive, and she really felt _much_ lighter when she'd removed them all, and then the weight of her hair fell down against her back. Kagome smiled to herself. She had as much hair as Sesshoumaru now. Well, as much as she remembered him having anyway. She didn't know if he was still around _these_ days, and if he was (which was perfectly possible) if he still wore his hair that long.

Raph whistled in appreciation without even thinking about it. He promptly blushed when everybody looked at him.

Kagome laughed before he tried to explain away the whistle. "Thanks Raph," she said, stroked his cheek, then collected up her daggers in her arms and happily sashayed to the room where her boxes of stuff had been stashed.

~oOo~

"Hey, April?"

"_Calling me already Kagome? What's up?"_

"It seems that there's some anti-turtle graffiti going up," Kagome answered. "The guy in the hockey mask came by with a photo of one bit. I was wondering if you'd be able to investigate it a little for me."

On the other end of the phone line, April laughed. _"Sure,"_ she agreed. _"Get your computer set up, and I'll email you what I can find."_

"You're the best, April."

"_And don't you forget it!"_ April answered happily.

~oOo~

"So that thing in the museum was _you_ guys," Kagome noted when she spotted the sword, and turned to raise an eyebrow at them. "Wouldn't have picked you for it."

"Nu-uh! Wasn't us!" Mikey denied. "We'd just been investigating a power-out in the area and saw these ninjas breaking into the museum, so we went to try an' stop 'em! We, ah, kinda blew it," the young turtle admitted.

"We got the sword from the ninja guys when they used it to build some kinda machine that was upsetting the East River," Donnie added.

"I somehow don't see ninjas making threats in spray-paint," Kagome pointed out. "And that sword is definitely what sparked that bit of upset," she said firmly, holding up the picture Casey had left with them. "It's not just some random sword, after all."

"You know something about it, Kagome?" Leo asked.

Kagome shrugged. "April covered the theft," she explained. "And that sword is a part of Japanese history." Not the part she'd lived through though. Thank goodness. "It's called the Sword of Tengu, and it was used to level villages."

Kagome reached out to pick it up.  
"No don't!" the turtles all yelled at once in concern.

Kagome stopped with her hand an inch away from the handle, a frown on her face. Not because of the caution her friends had yelled at her, but because she could feel something off about the sword – much the same way the Tokijin had felt off. This sword needed a strong spirit to dominate it, or it would refuse to be wielded.

"Were these ninjas the same ones that jumped April in the subway that night?" Kagome asked, though she didn't move away from the sword at all.

"Now that you mention it, yeah," Raph answered. "They were wearin' the same gear."

Kagome nodded. "The Foot Clan then," she said. "Little Tokyo residents recognised the symbol when April was able to draw it for them after the confrontation," she added in explanation. "Well, the older folks and the ones that had left Japan to avoid the Foot Clan, anyway. It seems that the New York branch stays clear of Little Tokyo. And they want -" Kagome gathered her miko-ki in her hand and grabbed the handle. "- this sword," she finished, and held it up so that she could examine it better.

She frowned as it fought her, but her miko-ki was winning still, so she focused on the blade.

"Uh..." Mikey offered intelligently. "How come Kagome can hold it without being blown away?"

"With difficulty, Mikey," Kagome answered shortly, and returned the blade to the stand the turtles had set up for it. She hissed a little in pain as she let go. "With difficulty," she reiterated, and looked at her hand. It was particularly pink, like a burn, but the flood of miko-ki was already healing the damage, since she hadn't retracted it yet.

"I agree with Kagome though. I don't think that ninjas are the ones doing the graffiti," Leo pointed out, rather than asking Kagome more about how she was able to hold the sword when she had already essentially told them that she wouldn't be answering that question.

"Agreed," the other turtles confirmed.

"Child, let me see your hand," Splinter requested.

Kagome held out the healing palm to the old rat

"Hm," he grunted after a moment, and released his light grip on her wrist. "Truly, you embrace the art of ninjistu Kagome, for there is more to you than meets the eye."

"Teacher's pet," Raph teased.

Kagome bit her lip, then smirked and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before she danced off to her room. She still had some unpacking to do.

Behind her, she could hear Raph catching a ribbing from his brothers.

~oOo~

Among the many things that had been on the shopping lists that the turtles and Splinter had given Kagome when she'd been helping them get their new home organised, she'd managed to get them all the appliances required for a kitchen. Donnie had then hooked it all up so that it actually worked.

So morning – and Kagome only knew that it was morning because she had brought that ultimate evil known as the alarm clock with her when she moved – saw Kagome up and making breakfast for her friends. It wasn't necessarily what Americans would recognise as breakfast, but it was the sort of breakfast that Kagome had grown up with.

"Woah! What kind of chow is this?" Mikey asked, stunned by the spread that Kagome had laid out for them.

"Healthy kind," Kagome answered with a smile. "Pizza is great, but it shouldn't be the _only_ thing you guys eat."

"Thank you for this, Kagome," Splinter said as he sat down at the table she'd laid out. Really, it was a slab of wood supported off the ground by four bricks, and Kagome had set six cushions around it for them to sit on. Just like back home, almost. "You need not have troubled yourself, though it is greatly appreciated."

"It sure looks good," Raph agreed as he picked up one of the dumplings, threw it gently up in the air, and caught it in his mouth. "I don't know what it is, but it's great," he praised once he'd chewed and swallowed. With a grin, he speared three more dumplings on each of his sai.

"Hey! Don't hog all the food!" Donnie objected, and was quick to grab a dumpling for himself.

"You really didn't have to do this Kagome," Leo said, though he also sat down and started to help himself.

"I know," Kagome agreed as she wiped off her hands on her apron and brought the last dish – a big bowl of oden with a ladle in – to the table and sat down. She immediately served herself some of the oden. "Oh, I called April about the graffiti," she said. "She promised to check out who was doing it for me. Well, she sent me an email full of pictures late last night."

"And?" Leo asked.

"Purple Dragons," Kagome answered. "It seems the biggest gang on the East Side has connections with the Foot Clan."

"That is _not_ a good thing. At all," Leo declared with soft solemnity.

"It does explain why the first time we met those ninjas was pretty much immediately after our first encounter with the Purple Dragons though," Donnie offered.

"Great, just great," Raph grumbled. "That _also_ means that the Foot Clan has connection with the biggest gang on the East Side," he pointed out, turning the perspective around. "You have any idea how much they steal in cash every night? Or hustle as 'protection' money? And that's going to support a ninja clan?"

"Aww man, not cool," Mikey complained. "All we get is what people drop down the drains!"

"Yeah, and we blew most of fifteen years worth of that gettin' new stuff for the new lair," Raph added. "Doesn't exactly leave us a lot of spending money. We'll be lucky to afford pizza for a while."

Mikey gasped in horror at the idea of not being able to afford pizza. Sure, the food Kagome had made them was great, but pizza was still his favourite.

"Fortunately for us, we have Donnie," Leo reminded the group. "And haven't actually _needed_ all that money we'd collected, except for buying pizzas, until now."

~oOo~

Splinter did, occasionally, allow his sons up to the surface. Only ever after dark, and always for training purposes. The boys, Kagome, and Casey Jones were all out on one such occasion – Casey having joined up with them _outside_ the warehouse on Eastman and Laird – when they spotted some Purple Dragons putting up some fresh anti-turtle graffiti.

"Oh, no way," Casey groaned.

"What?" Raph asked.

"That's Angel," Casey explained, pointing to the young girl with the purple hair tied up in pigtails who was standing there holding the extra spray-cans. "I promised her grandma I'd look out for her. What the hell is she doin' hangin' with Purple Dragons?"

"Ask her later," Kagome advised. "That's some of the bait-paint. Mikey?"

"Right," the nun-chuck wielding turtle agreed with slightly hesitant concern, and pulled his weapon of choice out of his belt.

"Donnie?" Kagome checked.

"Tracker is ready, and the signal is steady," Donnie confirmed, producing a gizmo that he'd cobbled together for the purpose of tracking the shell cells he'd made. "You're good to go Mike."

"I'm missin' somethin'," Casey recognised as Michaelangelo jump down to attack the guys who were actually wearing the Purple Dragon insignia.

"Mikey is going to let himself get caught," Raph explained. "We'll track where he gets taken. If he gets taken by the Purple Dragons, or by someone else, we'll be able to follow him, get him out, and do some damage while we're there."

Casey nodded in understanding, but even with the mask on, it was clear he was still a bit torn.

"Ugh, _men_," Kagome complained. "If you're so worried about her, go in and pull her out of there, preferably before she gets a good look at Mikey."

Casey didn't need to be told twice. Of course, when he grabbed the girl and pulled her up to the roof, he pulled her up on a different roof than the one the turtles were sitting on.

Just in time too, as some Foot ninjas showed up, turned on some _cloaking devices_ – and wasn't that just crazy space-age science fiction-esque – and proceeded to really beat up Mikey.

"Fancy toys doesn't make them smart though," Kagome noted softly as one didn't even realise that, in having fallen down, he had dirt up his back that let Mikey see him, despite the cloaking device, and the other one ran through puddles and left footprints.

"Got that right," Raph agreed.

"Unfortunately, it seems that cloaking isn't the only thing these ninjas have," Donnie commented as Mikey got thrown into some scaffolding hard enough that it all fell down around him. "I'd say they're extra strong as well."

Considering the way one of the guys just picked Mikey up and hauled him over his shoulder, not even grunting at the weight, that was a fair assumption. The turtles may be light on their feet, but they were heavy on the scales.

"Donnie, we're gonna need some way to see the invisible," Leo said frankly as they took off to follow their brother.

"They're still going to be warm bodies, so infa-red goggles should do the trick," Donnie answered. "It'll take me a few minutes to whip those up though."

"Go," Kagome advised. "The rest of us can still track Mikey on foot. You'll be able to catch up with the tracker."

"Gone," Donnie agreed, and doubled back to the lair.


	6. Chapter 6

"What planet are _you_ from?" they heard Mikey retort. "Dude, this is New York. Are you trying to tell me you've _never_ heard the urban legend about lost pets in the sewers growing to massive proportions?" he asked with a laugh, not the least bit concerned about the rotary blade he was being threatened with. He knew perfectly well that his family was right on his tail.

All the same, it wasn't like he was just lying there.

He didn't want to be teased about being a 'damsel in distress' by his brothers, so he was working on getting a hand free from the straps.

"If they exist, and I gotta say, you don't look like you'd be one of the crazies who believes in that stuff, then I'm sure even aliens from the next galaxy have heard _that_ particular story," Mikey added with a laugh. "On the other hand, you don't look smart enough to have thought up even that crazy theory on your own, however much I may be able to be mistaken for a 'little green man from Mars'."

And his arm was free.

Leo, Raph, Kagome and Donnie had been quietly incapacitating all of the invisible security detail on this boat, and had finally reached the part of the boat where Mikey was being held. They'd already found Mr Baxter Stockman, one eye short and a few scars richer than when he'd had a run-in with the turtles over his sewer-destroying invention, but much more alive than the authorities thought him to be.

Donnie made sure the guy hadn't already taken a DNA sample of his brother while Kagome knocked the guy out.

And then it was time for the turtles to meet Mountain Man. Well, not directly. After all, direct confrontation wasn't exactly the ninja way. Even if the boys thought it was more fun.

"We done?" Mikey asked as he hopped off the table he'd been strapped to. He'd cut the straps with the spinning blade the big guy had been threatening him with while Leo and Raph both gave solid blows to opposite sides of the guy's head, knocking him out.

"Just about," Kagome promised, and crouched low over the massive man. "Let me give him a nasty headache first."

"Uh... how're you gonna do that?" Mikey asked, confused as he rubbed his head. "It's not like you've got anything to pour down his throat, and you might just drown him if you did that anyway."

"Well, there's needles in the next room, and since this is a private yacht, it's almost certain that there's a liquor cabinet somewhere, so it wouldn't be that hard to inject the alcohol directly into his blood-stream," Donnie suggested.

"But I'm not doing that," Kagome countered, and gave the guy a quick check-over. He was big enough that Kagome was fairly sure he had some yokai ancestry, and, yep, there was definitely a hint of yokai in him, but even though it would affect him, she wasn't going to use her miko-ki for this. Instead, she pulled out the sharpest hair-stick she was wearing that night. "I'm going to do some peculiar acupuncture," she explained briefly, and jabbed a few key points that Sango had showed her long, _long_ ago.

Sango had been particularly upset with Miroku that day, and after he'd gone to sleep, she'd approached him with a stick she'd sharpened to a point and – with Kagome looking on, because she'd been curious – proceeded to poke certain areas of his body. Miroku had woken up the next morning complaining that he hadn't had any sake the night before, so why was he hung over?

The next time Inuyasha had run off to Kikyo, then come back like nothing had happened, Sango had made sure Kagome remembered that lesson by supervising as Kagome repeated the act. The next morning Inuyasha had been, excuse the pun, sick as a dog.

It was amazing how poking a few points on the hands and neck could affect a person.

"Done?" Raph asked when Kagome finally stood. Not that she'd taken very long.

"Yeah, I'm done," Kagome agreed, and replaced her hair-ornament. "He'll feel like he drank his weight in alcohol when he wakes up."

The turtles chuckled, and headed back up to the deck of the yacht.

"We're on a boat?" Mikey asked, surprised. He had, after all, been carried on unconscious.

"Yup," Leo agreed.

"So... how come Kagome is totally dry?" Mikey pressed.

"I got a ride," Kagome answered easily. "And the time it took to get through the enemy that were on board allowed what _did_ get wet to dry off."

Fighting in trousers that were wet up to mid-thigh hadn't been fun. Fortunately, the clothes she'd picked for the top-side training run they'd been sent on were fast to air-dry.

"A ride?" Mikey repeated, confused.

"Yeah," Raph said. "A ride. Same as she's gettin' for the swim back to the docks."

Raph was the first one in the water, and then Kagome climbed down the ladder at the back of the yacht and straddled Raph's shell as he floated on the surface.

"Oh, a ride," Mikey noted as Leo and Donnie joined Raph and Kagome in the water. "Way to be a gentleman Raph," he teased with a smirk as he slipped into the water himself. Quietly, rather than electing to cannon-ball. They were still out on their training run, after all. Even if they had gotten a little side-tracked.

~oOo~

Casey was waiting for them back at the warehouse.

"Kagome? Could I borrow some a ya time?" he asked.

Kagome shrugged and nodded in allowance. "This about the little girl from earlier?" she queried.

Casey nodded. "Angel, yeah. Uh, could you maybe talk to 'er? She won't listen to me. I was thinkin' maybe a female perspective?" he requested hopefully.

"Did you give her a _reason_ to listen to you?" Kagome countered archly. "Or did you just get protective on her? Getting protective may have worked with a girl in Japan within the last hundred years, but it really doesn't go down so well with the girls of New York. It's that 'something to prove' mentality most of you life-time New Yorkers have."

"Do we have something to prove?" Mikey asked Donnie quietly.

Donnie scoffed fondly. "Would you train as hard as you do if you didn't?" he countered.

"Oh, I get it."

"So?" Kagome asked Casey, hands on her hips. "Did you give the girl a reason to listen to you?"

Casey winced minutely and rubbed the back of his head – a sign that someone had probably once cuffed him there for being an idiot when he was younger. "Eh, I guess not," he admitted.

"Then go find her, and try again," Kagome advised bluntly. So bluntly it was practically an order, and Casey was a grown man. She was still (though only just) in her teenage years. "She knows you, and on some level probably does care for and respect you, if you got asked by her grandmother to watch out for her. And remember to stay calm," she added. "Getting angry about the Purple Dragons, when the girl likes them, won't help your cause."

"Right," Casey said, and heaved a sigh. "Thanks Kagome."

"You're welcome."

"Let us know how it works out," Leo added as they headed in, while Casey turned to head off and try and catch the girl with the purple pigtails again.

~oOo~

"You Americans are so wasteful," Kagome complained. They were, of all things, on a mission to the junk yard. With Splinter's blessing, of course, or it wouldn't have happened. The homeless who lived in the junk yards didn't ever bother themselves with the turtles, since no one ever concerned themselves with the homeless. Looking the other way was a truly defensive mechanism for many of New York's citizens.

"And the Japanese aren't?" Raph asked. "Hey Don, you don't want something so gross you can't stand to touch it, right?" he checked.

"As long as we can use it," Donnie answered briefly.

"They are," Kagome allowed with a sigh, answering the question Raph had sent her way. "But we've got a few more recycling plants than we do land-fills, so even when the Japanese are all about replacing the old with the latest and greatest every couple of years, there isn't pile-up like this."

"Just as well for us that we don't live in Japan then," Leo said firmly. "Or we'd have a lot more trouble."

The girl shook her head. "Actually, you'd probably be just fine," Kagome countered. "Set yourselves up with shrines near rivers, people will either think you're kappas, and make offering so that they can swim safely in the river without fear of being eaten, or they'll think you're river gods, and then they'll make offerings so that they can fish in the river successfully. Either way, you'd manage a fairly good trade," she explained.

It made her smile, really. For all that Japan still moved forward with science and technology, so many of the old legends were still believed in, and by so many people.

There was one old legend that said there was a giant catfish beneath Nippon, and while it slept most of the time, when it was restless, that was when Japan had earthquakes. Some Japanese scientists were even using catfish in earthquake studies – successfully.

There were still signs up near so many of Japan's rivers, warning not to go swimming there because of kappa. Yuki-Onna were still a genuine concern in in winter, and the tengu at all times in the mountains. Yurei, and their vengeful natures, were still feared in general, as proven by the successes of the various horror films that utilised them. Kitsune were written into the very history of Japan, not just its folklore.

Yes, the turtles would probably have done quite well in Japan. But they were American through and through, even with the way Splinter had raised them. As evidenced by the way Mikey was skateboarding around the junk piles, rather than helping sort the junk. The logic behind his being permitted to do something other than help was simple: a happy Mikey was preferred over a bored Mikey.

"You mean, like live out in the open? No hiding?" Raph asked, jerking Kagome back from her thoughts.

"And stared at like freaks," Leo cut in swiftly. "How long before we would be on some scientist's examination table?"  
"Oh no," Kagome said. "They'd stare at you like you were demons," she corrected with a smile. "The shintoists wouldn't let science anywhere near you."

"Sorry, too evolved to just live by a river now," Donnie decided shortly. "and is it just me, or are there less homeless than usual?"  
"I'll ask April to look into it when we get back to the lair," Kagome promised. Missing people, even if it was 'just' the homeless, would come under April's purview if there was a story behind it.

Donnie nodded in acceptance.

A week later, April was thanking Kagome for the story of the century. Which, considering how fast a New York minute was, meant about a month. A garbage man enslaving the homeless to build him an empire out of refuse, allowing him to take over the world? Oh yeah, Charles had given April a very tidy bonus for finding _that_ story. It have even given him a bit of a lead on his still-missing son.

~oOo~

The boys were set to weapons training in the centre of the lair – that point being the furthest from anything that they might damage while training – and Kagome was off to one side, sparring directly against Splinter, even while the old rat kept a watch over his sons out of the corner of one eye. She wasn't watching them so much as maintaining awareness, focused on her opponent instead. Still, that didn't stop her from hearing them when they started comparing the size of their- uh, that is... talking about how the weapons choice of their brothers was an inferior one.

The eye-roll that came when Leo started bragging about his twin katanas (lording it over his brothers who he'd all sent to the ground) was entirely involuntary, and Splinter caught it.

"Replace your daggers," he instructed softly as he broke off from her. "Fetch Raphael's sai, and disarm my successful, bragging son."

Kagome bowed and fetched Raph's sais from where they'd been sent into a wall, point first, and stuck there. Silently, she crept up behind Leo. He was the current focus of his brothers, as they bemoaned their loss, each in their own way, and he lorded it over them.

A quick movement had both of Leo's swords caught in the prongs of the sais, and then Kagome sent the very fine weapons flying, point-first, in opposite directions. One katana lodged in the stuffed training-dummy that was strapped to one of the support columns. The other struck the dummy that was propped up on a weighted base that allowed it to fall when hit, and then bounce back up to meet the next strike on the other side of the room.

The latter rather swayed under the force of impact.

"You've still got a lot of learning to do, kohai," Kagome informed the turtle she'd just disarmed.

"You gotta teach me that," Raph requested as he pulled himself up to his feet.

"Uh, what's 'kohai' mean?" Mikey asked.

"Under-classman," Kagome answered while giving Raph a confirming nod and his sais back. "I'm the sempai, or upper-classman, who has more experience than you," she added with a smile.

"I don't get it," Leo complained with a confused frown. "I had the superior weapon -"

"There is no such thing, Leonardo," Splinter interrupted firmly.

"Sensei?" Leo questioned.

"In the hands of a true master, _anything_ can be a deadly weapon," Splinter explained. "It is not the weapon that decides the winner of a fight, but rather the skill of the ones who hold the weapons. Until you have learned this, you have learned nothing."

"That's great an' all, but come on an' up _my_ skill with this weapon I'm holdin'!" Raph requested again, a bit more insistently.

Kagome laughed, even as Leo skulked off to collect his swords and think about his sensei's near-scolding. "Sure Raph," she agreed. "Here, it's like this..."

~oOo~

Donnie, Mikey and Raph had gone out after Leo, since he hadn't come back yet from when he went off sulking about Splinter sort-of scolding him about having not learned yet that it was the skill of the warrior, and not the choice of weapon that mattered. Kagome, meanwhile, was baking a batch of cookies while she talked on the phone with her mother – Donnie had assured her that there shouldn't be any problems with a long-distance call, and since the turtles weren't on any phone plan but their own, there wouldn't be any horrific bills to pay. The only tricky thing was sorting out the best time to call home.

"_Some very handsome gentlemen came to the shrine yesterday,"_ Kun Loon's voice said from the other end of the line. _"They were asking after you."_

"Me?" Kagome asked, confused. "Why would anybody be asking after me?"

"_I asked them that,"_ Kun Loon answered. _"The younger one said that they were visiting because they were sure it was safe to now. Of course I asked about that too, as you can imagine. The young man smiled and said that they'd waited until they were certain you weren't travelling to the past any more."_

Kagome fumbled the bowl of cookie-dough, just barely catching it before the contents could be ruined by being dropped on the floor.

"Did- did they give their names?" she asked hesitantly.

"_Kagome, they left their _business cards_,"_ Kun Loon replied, and there was a faint sound of shuffling before she began to read them off to her daughter. _"The younger gentleman is Yok Shippo-san, of Kitsune Ikebana, and the older gentleman, who didn't say much, and was _very_ imposing by the way Kagome, was Tai Sesshoumaru-sama, who _owns _his_ _own_ university_, Kagome. I was quite frazzled when they bid me good day,"_ Kun Loon informed her daughter.

It seemed that the woman was still a bit frazzled.

"Sesshoumaru-sama and Shippo-chan came looking for me..." Kagome repeated softly, her eyes going wide. "Mama, did you tell them I'd moved to New York?"

"_I told them you had moved to America to live with your father's sister,"_ Kun Loon answered. _"I didn't give them the city, just in case. Their contact information is all on the business cards though,"_ she added. _"These people were friends?"_ she checked.

"Sesshoumaru-sama was more an ally and teacher, but Shippo was definitely a friend," Kagome replied instantly, leaving out that there had ever been a time when Sesshoumaru had been an 'enemy'.

"_Then I'll send you the business cards, since they were left for you, rather than for me,"_ Kun Loon decided. _"I'll slip them in with your birthday present, I was going to post it tomorrow anyway."_

Kagome smiled, looking forward to receiving that parcel all the more now that she knew a little bit of what would be in it. "Thanks Mama."


	7. Chapter 7

"New weapon in the house," Kagome noted as she swiped the sword in question from Leo as he was escorted into the lair by his brothers. "Ugly thing," she noted as she considered the cross-guard and handle. The sheath wasn't exactly pretty either. Dark and garish at the same time. Then she loosed the blade and couldn't help but whistle.

Toshi Gurahara had been alive and doing his work at the same time that Kagome was chasing down the fragments of the Shikon, and Kagome had gotten the chance to meet him. Even if she hadn't though, Kagome would still have known quality steel when she saw it. Mostly thanks to her time in the present, stock-taking at the shrine and working with antiques. Even if she hadn't met Gurahara, she would have known that the original sheath, cross-guard and grip had been replaced, as their quality was vastly inferior to the blade.

She had met the guy though, and she recognised his work. That sheath was not his style, and the cross-guard? Yeah, Toshi Gurahara didn't do things that were that sort of tacky.

"Excuse me while I remove the junk from this very fine blade," she requested, though she didn't wait for any permission before she settled herself down at Donnie's workbench and started to carefully remove the cross-guard and hilt wrappings.

Just for laughs, she replaced them on a bit of metal that was more suited to their quality. A thin length of scrap aluminium. She didn't have a better sheath for the blade, or guard, or hilt wrappings, but she could send it home to her grandfather, or possibly even to Sesshoumaru, and it would get the treatment a blade of such quality deserved.

She set the naked blade in her room, and returned to the turtles and Master Splinter just in time to miss the very end of what the boys had been saying, and sit in for whatever Splinter had to say on the matter.

"My sons, I had hoped to avoid such a day as this," Splinter told them. "I have always known who these people are," he said as he accepted the sheath and grip, the 'sword' from Kagome. "Before Kagome told us, I knew. I already knew that this symbol -" he held up a tattered piece of cloth, ripped off the uniform of one of the enemy ninjas, "- was the symbol of the Foot ninja. Their leader is Oroku Saki, but he has another name: the Shredder."

"'The Shredder' being a title that is passed down to each successive leader of the Foot Clan," Kagome joined in softly, as she knelt off to the side.

Splinter nodded, and continued. "I have often told you of my beloved master, Yoshi," he told them all – and yes, in the short time Kagome had been living with the turtles, she'd heard a few tales of the rat's old owner as well. Particularly when it was just the two of them, taking a break from meditating and working on her channelling her miko-ki.

"As you already know, my master was a ninja. One of the best that had been seen in centuries," Splinter continued. "And I learned everything I know of the art from him, from when I was his pet rat, mimicking his movements in my cage. The happy life I had with my master ended when the Shredder sent his Foot ninja to attack my master.

"My master battled honourably," Splinter continued. "They, however, did not, and through their dishonourable ways were able to overpower him. That was when the Shredder arrived. He had his men torture my master, demanding information from him that, to this day, I am not sure he even had. Regardless, the only thing he told them was that those who live without honour will die the same way. The Shredder ordered my master to be killed, and though I tried to save him, but I was only a normal rat back then, able to do little more than leave a nasty mark. The Shredder killed my master, and I was without my family," Splinter concluded with a sad sigh.

Then he chuckled softly. "Well," he corrected, "until I found you, my sons."

"But Master Splinter, why didn't you tell us this story sooner?" Mikey asked.

"Because I did not want your training to be tainted by my loss," Splinter answered fiercely. "The poison of hatred. I did not want you to feel the sorrow that is still in my heart. But considering everything that has happened today, you need to know who Saki, the Shredder, really is. He serves no great purpose, and fights no great evil. He _is_ great evil. Any endeavour he undertakes, he does for his own selfish gain."

"Man, I am such an idiot," Leo complained.

"Ha, I coulda told you that," Mikey teased with a laugh as he nudged his brother with his elbow.

"You been played, bro," Donnie added with a grin. "He saw you coming a mile away."

Kagome couldn't help but remember the many times that Naraku had used similar tactics. It was one of his very favourite things to do, turning people on each other with a few carefully chosen words. The damn spider had been a master of weaving words into webs that had his prey just about catching themselves. Pretending to give people what they wanted, in order to ultimately receive what _he_ wanted.

"So what are we gonna do about it?" Raph asked, snapping Kagome out of her unpleasant recollections.

"The Shredder wants an answer," Leo said, pounding a fist into the palm of the other hand. "I think we should give him one, turtle style."

"You will _not_ confront him," Splinter snapped at his sons. "I will meditate on this matter," he informed them.

The turtles, still seated, bowed to their master, a motion which he returned before he stood and retreated to his rooms, leaving behind the scrap of aluminium that Kagome had replaced the fine blade with.

~oOo~

Kagome was in her room, settled in and about to set herself to the task of painting her toenails pink, when she heard the elevator grind its way up.

Two options – one, someone topside was coming down for a visit. That could be her aunt, April, or Casey Jones. The other option was, however, the one that was more likely: that one or more of the turtles had decided to go out. Probably to give their 'turtle style' answer to the Shredder.

She hurled herself towards the door of her room and threw it open. There was not one turtle to be seen.

"Great," Kagome hissed sarcastically to herself, and did another scan of the lair, just in case they'd done something as sensible as leaving a note. There _was_ a piece of paper on Donnie's work-table, so Kagome headed over to check. No, it was just the letter that the Shredder had sent to Leo... and beside it was the remote for the Battle Shell.

The idiots hadn't even taken the thing that would be most useful for getting them back home again if they ran into trouble that they couldn't handle.

Kagome grabbed it up, and headed over to the door to Master Splinter's private chambers. She knocked respectfully, and waited for him to answer. She knew he'd gone in there to meditate on the matter, and didn't want to disturb him, but the boys hadn't waited for their master.

"Kagome," Splinter greeted when he opened the door. "Something troubles you?"

"Splinter-sensei, I heard the elevator, and your sons have vanished," Kagome answered succinctly.

Splinter groaned, and shook his head as he cradled his brow in one paw.

"I need a moment to change," Kagome stated with a gesture to her comfortable – but certainly not battle-ready – pyjama shorts and tank-top. "But with your permission, Splinter-sensei, I will go after them," she offered.

Splinter nodded his permission. "Go change," he agreed. "I will go now after my errant sons."

Kagome nodded shortly in understanding, and hurried back to her room. Shorts were replaced by tough grey jeans that she'd still be able to move in, the tank-top was switched out for bindings and a top that wouldn't show off so much cleavage. Kagome also grabbed her archery things, just in case, and wrapped her hair around five ornamental – yet still deadly – daggers.

A pair of sturdy boots that she could run in finished it.

Dressed, she took a deep breath and headed for the elevator. She still had the remote control for the Battle Shell, but for now, she just climbed the stairs up to the roof of the warehouse. Hopefully, she'd be able to spot Splinter or the turtles from there.

As soon as she stepped outside, Kagome growled, and cursed Raijin for delighting in dramatic confrontations, even when they weren't in Japan. Of _course_ there was a storm that night. Of _course_ there was rain and lightning. How absolutely _perfect_ for a battle that was likely to take place on the roof-tops of New York.

Kagome just wished that a raincoat would be designed with street fights in mind. Or maybe she'd just start having one outfit that she washes in oil instead of detergent.

~oOo~ 

Kagome blinked. Okay, so there was a horde of badly dressed ninjas – and she meant badly dressed on several levels, not least of which was that it was the _kabuki_ practitioners that had dressed in black, while _real_ ninjas generally wore blue, sometimes green or brown, but the traditional Japanese indigo dye actually blended better with shadows than black did.

And they were being lead by a guy in some of the most gaudy samurai-esque armour she'd ever seen – and she'd seem some really gaudy samurai in her time, well, in her time in the Sengoku anyway.

More than that, she could just vaguely sense some youki coming from the samurai-wannabe.

There was also a building on fire, a police car, and a fire truck. Well, time to find the boys and Splinter-sensei.

A familiar voice groaning in pain caught her attention, and she dropped down from her perch.

"Kagome!" Donnie yelped in surprise.

"Shh!" she hissed briefly. "I could hear you two from up there!" she scolded with a gesture to the building she'd been lurking on the roof of moments before. "What happened?" she demanded quietly as she turned her attention on Mikey, the one who'd been groaning.

"Sprained ankle," Donnie supplied. "We need to -"

Kagome shoved the remote control for the Battle Shell at the bo-staff wielding member of the group, and knelt down in front of the brother who preferred the nun-chucks. A soft pink glow lit up her hands, and she wrapped them around the ankle that she could see Mikey was trying to not put any weight on.

Mikey shivered. "You're hands are cold, Kagome," he complained.

"And reptiles are all cold-blooded," Kagome replied in non-answer. "I've been out in the rain for over half-an-hour already looking for you guys, and I am _not_ best pleased. Splinter-sensei told you _not_ to confront the Shredder," she reminded them sternly.

"We didn't plan to confront him," Donnie defended weakly. "Just some of his Foot ninja, have them pass on the message to their master that he could stuff his offer."

"Return the sword," Mikey added. "But when that mountain of a guy showed up and drew the sword to fight us, it wasn't a sword any more," he added, confused.

"I wasn't just admiring how pretty it was when I snatched it from Leo," Kagome pointed out. "I plan to send the blade back home to Japan. Done," she added, deliberately ignoring their dumbfounded expressions. "You're all fixed, so _no_ dramatics about it," she ordered firmly as she stood.

"Thank you, Kagome," Splinter said as he and Raphael stepped out of the shadows. "Donatello, if you would please summon the truck, we still have to find Leonardo. It is time to vanish. If Kagome says there is a possibility for a quiet life for us in Japan... then perhaps that is where we should go."

"I'm not sure I'm cut out for the quiet life," Raph pointed out, his hands lingering on his sais.

Kagome smiled slyly. "Well, I have a couple of friends," she offered. "Sesshoumaru-sama owns a university now, but I'm sure five-hundred years haven't changed him _too_ much. If you want your tail handed to you once a week, I'm certain he can oblige, if you ask nicely."

"Ha!" Raph barked out, amused – and somewhat tickled with the idea. "Okay, Japan. How we gonna get there?" he asked.

"Swim?" Mikey offered with a smirk.

"How about I just make the Battle Shell amphibious?" Donnie suggested. "That will also give us time to pack up our stuff and say goodbye to the few people we need to say goodbye to."

"That's a much better idea than Mikey's," Raph agreed.

~The End~


End file.
